Mom charged with leaving kids at courthouse

Authorities this afternoon charged a Chicago mother who allegedly left her three children unattended in and around the Cook County branch courthouse in Bridgeview, sheriff's police said.

Lupita Villasenor, 25, of the 3100 block of West 50th Place, was charged with three counts of child endangerment, according to a statement by Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart's office.

At about 2:30 p.m., security guards at the front door of the courthouse spotted a 5-year-old playing in a revolving door nearby and spoke with the boy, whose mother was in the court clerk's office at the time, the statement said.

Villasenor allegedly told the deputies her ex-husband had driven her to the courthouse with her son and her two other children to get information about her driver's license, which was suspended in December 2008.

The deputies searched the parking lot for her ex-husband, but couldn't find him, the statement said. They found her car parked in the lot and Villasenor's 3-year-old son wandering around near the entrance of the courthouse.

A person found her 18-month-old daughter in the parking lot, and the girl was missing one shoe, according to the statement.

According to the National Weather Service, the temperature in the area at the time was 15 degrees, but with the wind chill, it felt like 3 degrees.

Paramedics checked the children at the courthouse and determined they were not injured.

The Sheriff's Department called the state Department of Children and Family Services who released the children to the custody of an aunt. Villasenor is scheduled to appear at a bond hearing Thursday morning.